Sex

Sex in the New Millinium

References to sexuality and sexual activities seem s to surround the American public in everything we do. Movies, music, the Bible, religion and politics are all related to sexuality and sexual activities in one way or another.

MTV, the first 24-hour music network, has been structured around youths ranging from the age of 12 to 34. In fact 28% of their viewership is under the age of 18. You ask why bring MTV into something sexual? Well, the music videos shown tend to center their theme on gender portrayal sand sexual or violent content. Women are portrayed as passive characters and sexual objects. 81% of the videos that contain violence also contain sexual imagery. Some videos that contain certain lyrics and actions about sexuality and sexual behavior can encourage a naÐ'‹ve child to do something that they should not be doing. So why do producers keep making videos that are so harmful to our youth? They do this because sexual imagery increases the appeal of the music videos. Certainly, the language of music videos includes a variety of symbols and images.

For any individual, regardless of sexual inclination, to embrace the vague sexual desires is to claim a nature that God never intended for us. On the other hand, to make sharp distinctions among human beings, in terms of Ð"Ñ*homosexuals and heterosexualsÐ"Ñ*, is underestimating how permanently self-referential and self-absorbed our society is. How does the church feel about sexuality? A individual is not born Ð"Ñ*gayÐ"Ñ* or Ð"Ñ*straightÐ"Ñ* they are born Ð"Ñ*maleÐ"Ñ* or Ð"Ñ*femaleÐ"Ñ*. The church of the 90Ð"Ñ*s has accepted the gay community for whom they are and what they believe in. However, they feel that God did not create them with these ideas in mind. The gays just acquired them from society.

Something that I came across time and time again as I researched sexuality was what is the main influence on someone that helps them decide their sexuality and their sexual actions? Through research, it seems as though our society is convinced that parents and the educational system must interact with young children and teach them about sex. By instilling strong morals and values in our children, parents feel that they will make the Ð"Ñ*rightÐ"Ñ* decisions when it comes to anything sexual. But who is the one to decide what is Ð"Ñ*rightÐ"Ñ* and what is Ð"Ñ*wrongÐ"Ñ*. It is not carved in stone that a man must desire a woman and a woman must desire a man. Nobody has the authority to tell another individual whom to be attracted to and sexually involved with. However did you know that only 3% of men will actually identify themselves as homosexuals and about half that many women will admit their Lesbianism. Well, why is this? We all know that more than 5% of the human race is gay. But people are scared to come out of the closet because they donÐ"Ñ*t want to be treated any differently than a heterosexual.

Sexuality education of adolescents by parents and educators seems to be critical in the 90Ð"Ñ*s. School based sexual education programs are successful in increasing studentsÐ"Ñ* knowledge but are less successful in altering a students attitudes and behaviors about sex. Why? This is because parents are delaying their participation in educating their kids about sex because they feel it is unnecessary because their kids arenÐ"Ñ*t having sex. Well, they are wrong because kids as young as 9 years of age are experimenting with their sexuality.

For instance, about 95% of adolescents know condoms provide one effective way to avoid HIV infection and teenage pregnancy but less than half of the sexually active kids from ages 15-17 use condoms consistently. Why? Again these kids lack the advice and supervision of their parents.

Sexuality education provided by parents has been shown to have a beneficial